In a postscript, Andrew Gelman laments a general trend he notices in economics:
My only real problem with it is that when discussing data analysis, [the authors] pretty much ignore the statistical literature and just look at econometrics. In the long run, that's fine--any relevant developments in statistics should eventually make their way over to the econometrics literature. But for now I think it's a drawback in that it encourages a focus on theory and testing rather than...
You may think you have good reasons to not stop what you are doing and read Phil Schrodt's essay on the "Seven Deadly Sins of Contemporary Quantitative Political Analysis". But you do not. Not only does the piece make several astute points about the current practice of quantitative social science (in a highly enjoyable way, I might add), but it also reviews developments in the philosophy of science that have led us here. The entirety is excellent, so picking out an excerpt is difficult, but here is his summary of our current...
